Posts in category Contemporary

House Trained is women’s fiction novel about Alex, an interior decorator, her husband, Barry and their dog Marie. A committed child-free couple, their house is like a shrine to Alex’s exquisite tastes and one she is exceptionally proud of. She finds the brood being raised by her sister to be unnecessarily messy and annoying and […]

For anyone who hasn’t read a Cathy Kelly book before, know this: she is one of the premiere women’s fiction authors in Ireland and It Started with Paris is an excellent example of why. A sprawling cast of characters that all end up interconnected at different points in the story – because everyone does […]

You is a mindf*ck. A total and complete mindf*ck. In the best way. The story is written from Joe’s perspective and to Beck, his dream girl who he meets when she buys books in the East Village independent bookstore he manages. However, the relationship is not ever actually mutual. Joe is a crazed stalker who […]

I normally love Wax’s books. Her previous ones have been largely about women and their friendships through odd circumstances or despite them. This one was enjoyable – don’t get me wrong – it was just a liiiiiiitle more angsty than I found fully necessary. The angst comes from keeping secrets, and regular readers know […]

The Square by Rosie Millard is one of those “slice of life” books in the tradition of Maeve Binchy. While there certainly is a plot, the book is more about the rhythms of life the characters move in. Centered around an upper-middle class housing square around a private garden in London (think the lovely […]

Y’ALL. I ate this book up with a big fat spoon. I saw it on a tweet from Curtis Sittenfeld and followed the Amazon link. When I read the description, my mouse trigger finger immediately went to “buy”. Movie Star By Lizzie Pepper is the fictional tale of a Hollywood starlet drawn into a romance […]

Madam President is a fast-paced, tightly wound narrative about three women – POTUS, SECDEF and the Press Secretary – before, during, and after an international crisis of terrorism on American soil. Recommended for people who like political behind-the-scenes narratives, interpersonal relationships and political intrigue. I thought the book would focus much more on the attack itself […]

Nancy Thayer’s The Guest Cottage is a delightful novel set on the picturesque island of Nantucket where a divorcee and widower find love as their families meld together. I have never read anything by Thayer before – but in reading the reviews on Goodreads this is a very typical example of her work. It’s an enveloping […]

Dani Atkins’s book The Story of Us, is billed as “women’s fiction” (a category title I loathe) with romantic and suspense elements. The back copy is compelling; one week away from her wedding to Richard, Emma meets Jack and her world is upended. In the first chapter, we discover that Emma is on her […]